Sign for cars



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES S. REED, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

SLGN FOR CARS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 482,928, dated September 20, 1892.

Application filed December 21, 1891- Serial No. 415,791- (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, OHARLEs S. REED, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Signs for Cars, of which the following, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification.

The object of my invention is to combine with the ordinary rotating prismatic signboard of street-cars a device by which it may be readily turned so as to exhibit any one of its sides, the operating device being accessible to the conductor or driver. This device has, in addition to its mechanism for turning the sign, a pointer which by pointing to a particular line on an auxiliary sign indicates the particular sign that is exhibited on the revolving sign, so that the operator may be enabled to set the sign as desired without seeing it. This object I attain by the mechanism shown in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 shows, partly in vertical section and partly in elevation, a portion of the part of a car that projects over the platform. Fig. 2 is a view taken from the interior of the car, looking outward, this being represented as partly in section and partly in elevation.

In the drawings the sign is represented as on one end of the car, but it may be placed on the sides equally as well.

Let A represent a part of the body of a car, and B a projection that forms a roof for one of the end platforms. Upon this roof a rotating prismatic sign-board D is mounted on a shaft E E, as shown in Fig. 2. The shaft E has at one end a pinion P, adapted to engage with a sliding rack H. This sliding rack H is mounted in ways K and is provided with a handle H, by means of which the driver or conductor while standing on the platform can rotate the sign-board. The particular sign exposed is known to the operator from the fact that the pointer R, attached to the rack H, is so adjusted that it will point to the particular legend on the auxiliary sign S that is exhibited on the sign-board D. For holding the rotating sign-board D in the desired position the edge of the rack H is provided with a series of notchesN N, &c., (see Fig. 2,) with which a spring catch M M engages, the notches being so located that when the catch is engaged with anyone of them then the corresponding side of the sign-board is displayed.

To make this device useful in the nighttime as well as in the day, I place a lightL in front and somewhat below it, as shown in Fig. 1, and in front of the said light L, I place an opaque reflector L, so as to throw the light rearward and upward onto the sign.

I claim- In a car-sign device, the combination of a rotating prismatic sign-board having a pinion P, adapted to engage with and operateamovable rack H, and pointer R, connected to said rack with an auxiliary sign S, said auxiliary sign S and pointer B being so arranged as to indicate (to a person on the platform) which legend on the outside sign is displayed, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, on this 18th day of December, A. D. 1891.

CHARLES S. REED. Witnesses:

FRANK G. PARKER, THOMAs J. KEEFE. 

